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The Doll's Breath

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The Doll's Breath
Directed byStephen Quay
Timothy Quay
Written by
  • Stephen Quay
  • Timothy Quay
Based on"Las Hortensias"
by Felisberto Hernández
Produced byKeith Griffiths
Cinematography
  • Stephen Quay
  • Timothy Quay
Edited by
  • Stephen Quay
  • Timothy Quay
Music byMichèle Bokanowski
Production
companies
Distributed byZeitgeist Films
Release date
  • 11 September 2019 (2019-09-11) (L'Étrange Festival)
Running time
22 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Doll's Breath is a 2019 British short stop-motion animated film written and directed by Stephen and Timothy Quay. Based on the short story "Las Hortensias" (1949) by Felisberto Hernández, the film follows Horacio as he sets up complicated charades where women and life-sized dolls change places in a web of jealousy, betrayal and murder. The film premiered at the 25th L'Étrange Festival in Paris, France, on 11 September 2019, by Zeitgeist Films.

Premise

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Horacio, a former window dresser, sets up complicated charades where women and life-sized dolls change places in a web of jealousy, betrayal and murder.[2]

Production

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In 2015, Syncopy and Zeitgeist Films teamed up to distribute several short films directed by Stephen and Timothy Quay.[3] In 2016, Syncopy owners and executive producers Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas commissioned The Doll's Breath from Stephen and Timothy Quay, with the stipulations that it would be "no longer than 30 minutes and shot on 35mm".[4][5][6] Nolan also requested the Quay Brothers to script the short, which initially "followed the course of the story pretty strictly, but—as always when we work—at some point you have to just put the script down, and as you start to build the puppets, it takes its own course. You just guide it a little bit: shorten some things, get rid of some things".[4] Nolan had previously written and directed a documentary short about the Quay Brothers, titled Quay (2015).[7][8] The Doll's Breath contains no dialogue, as it "tells the story purely with images and music, even if it became abstract".[4] It is based on the short story "Las Hortensias" (1949) by Felisberto Hernández.[1] The Quay Brothers had previously adapted Hernández's work for their short film Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. (2013).[9]

Release

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The Doll's Breath had its world premiere at the 25th L'Étrange Festival in Paris, France, on 11 September 2019, by Zeitgeist Films.[1][10] The film also played at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival on 13 October 2019, the 62nd International Dok Leipzig Festival on 2 November 2019, the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam on 24 January 2020, and the 21st Jeonju International Film Festival, as part of the "Quay Brothers: Welcome to the Dormitorium" exhibition, from 21 July 2020 to 4 October 2020.[a] In January 2020, the film also debuted on the streaming service Mubi for a limited time, as part of a partnership with the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam.[18][19][15] In March 2025, the stop-motion puppets used for The Doll's Breath, as well as other films from the Quay Brothers, were put on display at the "Dormitorium – The Film Décors of The Quay Brothers" exhibition, at Bloomsbury's Swedenborg House, as part of the 23rd Polish Film Festival.[20][21]

Critical response

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Geoff Andrew gave a positive review of the film's puppetry, writing "the fantastic, enigmatic tableaux of grotesque characters (some more or less human, some not at all, some impressively weird hybrids) ... such is the meticulous, almost absurdly detailed assemblage of the hand-crafted figures in their likewise painstakingly hand-crafted landscapes that one is overtaken by a strange sense of life not extinguished but temporarily put on pause".[21] Alex Dudok de Wit of Move Madly praised Bokanowski's score, specifically how "its dissonant jabs and sub-auditory rumbles speak jealousy and paranoia in the absence of any dialogue".[4]

Notes

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  1. ^ Attributed to multiple sources: [2][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "The Doll's Breath". Etrange Festival. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  2. ^ a b "The Doll's Breath". Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  3. ^ McNary, Dave (19 February 2015). "Christopher Nolan's Syncopy Teaming With Zeitgeist on Blu-ray Releases (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d Dudok de Wit, Alex (27 August 2024). "'Images Heard And A Music Seen': A Conversation With The Brothers Quay". Move Madly. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  5. ^ "The Doll's Breath". Illuminations Media. 11 September 2019. Archived from the original on 6 September 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  6. ^ Wallace, Joseph (2 December 2024). "Conversation with Quay brothers". Matadero Madrid. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  7. ^ Labrecque, Jeff (27 July 2015). "Christopher Nolan's next movie is a documentary short". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  8. ^ Hoffman, Jordan (20 August 2015). "The Quay Brothers: a nightmarish inspiration for Christopher Nolan". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  9. ^ "The Quay Brothers Introduce Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H." Wexner Center for the Arts. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Quay Brothers' 2019 New Film 'The Doll's Breath' World Premiere". Thinking Hand (in Korean). 9 September 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  11. ^ "The Doll's Breath". Mubi. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  12. ^ "Dok Leipzig: Homage to the Quay Brothers". erdteil. 3 November 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  13. ^ "LFF for free: new free public events programme announced". BFI. 23 September 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  14. ^ "The Doll's Breath". IFFR. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  15. ^ a b "Talk: Frameworks – Quay Brothers". IFFR. 24 January 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  16. ^ "The Doll's Breath". jeonjufest. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  17. ^ Ji-won, Choi (16 July 2020). "Jeonju film fest to kick off screening tour". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  18. ^ "International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020. Lineup". Mubi. 18 December 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  19. ^ "Festival Focus: Rotterdam". Mubi. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  20. ^ Lang, Robert (24 March 2025). "Luminaries of Stop-Motion: A Quay Brothers Retrospective". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  21. ^ a b Andrew, Geoff (26 March 2025). "Impossible Worlds Made Real: The Quay Brothers in Bloomsbury". geoffandrew.com. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
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